(Un)Holy Iftar

It’s been a while since my last update. The entire gang got together for iftar at a place called “The Diner” which is next to Espresso on Khayaban-e-Shahbaz. All in all there were thirteen of us inclusive of current and ex-Ogilvians.

At iftar time we were served an iftar platter which comprised of 3 mini burgers, a few buffalo wings, chicken sticks and some samosas and pakorays. Because we were hungry at that time it all seemed pretty good.

The iftar deal for ‘The Diner’ was Rs. 895 per head exclusive of tax and we could pick any item from a given menu there would be unlimited servings from the iftar menu, just to be clear, ‘unlimited servings’ means that you can order as many items as you want within the given menu and not huge servings.

I wanted to play safe so I ordered the “Mushroom Steak”. After a good 45 minutes of waiting and throwing tantrums, the food finally arrived. If the company had not been so much fun, we would all have gone nuts.

When the food arrived, they gave me a “Pepper Steak” instead of my original order, but, I rolled with it because of the fear that they would take another 45 minutes if they had to change the order. It would actually have made no difference either way because it was by far the puniest steak I have ever seen in my life! It was the first time in my life that I was done with my meal before the waiters were done serving it! There wasn’t enough of the steak on the plate to actually gauge the taste of it, all I can say is that it was a very dry steak, as if it was prepared hours in advance and just heated in a microwave before serving and the mashed potatoes were way too salty.

Our newest gang member, Sadia, ordered the “Prawn Pasta” which had a whopping one tiny prawn in it and smelled horribly like fish. She could not get passed a few bites, I don’t blame her, it was virtually the same story of discontent up and down our table. The only saving grace was the “Vanilla Ice Cream Brownie” which someone suggested that these guys got from Espresso!

The horror story that is “The Diner” does not end here. The very next day myself, Mahreen, Yasir and Sadia all mysteriously seem to have upset stomachs!

Overall, the only good thing about the entire experience was the people we brought. “The Diner” however, spectacularly makes the top of the Blacklist, eliminating Kahva! All readers are warned, you go to “The Diner” at your own peril!